Where the heart is
by AtLas1
Summary: months into the future. post game story. Sora is gone, lost but not forgotten. Kairi awaits his return, and Riku is off searching for his friend. The heartless return and the search for Sora may turn into something more than they asked for. prologue done
1. Prologue

By: Atlas.   
  
Chapter one  
  
  
There was no sound at all, not even a whisper, but when he entered, the world was aware of his arrival. The rain was pounding hard that night, no one was outside, too afraid to anyway. He walked nonchalantly as if nothing was wrong. The black hood covered his eyes, only strands of hair showing underneath gave any sign of his actual appearance. His steps echoed throughout the night, despite the heavy falling of the rain. He looked up and saw neon lights blaring around him.   
  
It has changed... he thought to himself. True, it had been a while, an eternity to him, but in reality, not too long. But for this boy, it had been long enough.  
  
As if my a 6th sense or instinct, his body suddenly tensed up. Suddenly around him, pools of dark obsidian black formed, and out of these pools rose figures. They were humanoid shaped, except that they were completely black, had glowing eyes of yellow and they seemed to all act as one. But no where near human. The hooded figure quickly turned, and as if forming the sword out of pure nothingness, drew a keyblade. The weapon of the chosen, and by some miracle, he drew another. He could feel his power mounting. He had power, no doubt, so much, he could control worlds. The dark clouds hovering over the sky, suddenly parted away, the rain around him coming to an end. Violet blazing lights flew through the sky as if a signal appeared that the hooded boy had arrived.   
  
"Where is Sora?"   
  
The heartless creatures could not understand, but somehow knew that the name held importance. But still, there was no answer. The man knew he could wait, oh he had waited so long for many things, but knew that there would be no answer. He stepped up and-  
  
The girl woke up. It was more of a startle than anything. She had dreamed the same dream again. The dream that haunted her sleep, for many nights already. Looking outside she could see the bright moon hanging in the sky, and the water glimmering under its light. It was summer, the temperature should be ok, and decided that maybe a walk outside wouldn't be bad. Maybe even good. Quietly, she slipped out of her bed and walked down the wooden ramps keeping her house up in the trees. She slowly climbed down a ladder, and gingerly hopped onto the beach, sand filling up already between her toes. She slowly walked toward the edge of the beach. She was right, it was a warm night, but for some reason, she felt so cold... so alone... She knew the feeling, in fact it haunted her everyday. She would try to think over it, but no matter how hard she tried to get over it, there are just some things in life no one can change. Then all of a sudden she actually felt cold, real physical cold. She looked down at her feet and saw the beach edge washing up and down, splashing at her feet. Half jumping back, more in the cold than real surprise, she could once again remember standing here.   
  
Kairi!!!...  
Sora!!!...   
  
She could almost feel the beach slip apart like it had before. The feelings were overwhelming her, the dizziness quickly taking over. She fell to her knees and could feel tears in her eyes, but she wanted to hold them in. The memory that kept haunting her, even after all these months. She hated to remember, she loved to remember, she hurt to remember this. But she knew it was unstoppable. The droplets of water started to slowly form at her eyes. Her long hair had fallen to the front of her face, blocking the light from the moon. The feeling of being alone swept over her. The memory started to creep back in.   
  
Kairi! Remember what you said before?...  
  
Yes... she remembered. Remembered the promise they had for each other.   
  
I'll come back for you, I promise!  
  
She thought to herself. "I know you did, I know you did"... but where was he now? Lost to the reaches of space and who knows, maybe even time. She knew she could trust him. But was it even possible anymore for him to come back? He was off on an other world, if he was still alive at all. Gone somewhere far off in the stars. Beyond her reach...   
  
I know you will...  
  
Her last words to him before their hand let go. He slowly floated away off. Waving at her, she could tell that he meant well with his promise. His cocky smile and tilt of his head reassured her that everything would be ok. She always felt torn between reality and dreams. She knew that he would come back for her. But could he at all? Could he possibly still do anything?... The tears were now streaming down her face onto the sand, as the waves washed up and down, the sand became soaked in water. She couldn't tell anymore if it was the ocean, or her tears. She thought again how impossible it was. Just like the entire ocean and her tear. It was lost among the waves, not that anyone could tell a difference anymore. The pain was unbearable...   
  
... you said you would come back... where are you now?...  
  
  
  
The heartless had taken over. The keyblade master had failed apparently. Sure, he had defeated Ansem, the seeker of the heartless, he had even managed to reach the hollow bastion and seal the keyhole. Still, it was not enough. The heartless had started arriving into the worlds by raining from the sky. They had evolved, become stronger, more versatile and agile. And all around, just harder to kill. Oh yes, he had remembered, he had remembered sleeping, and hearing the walls of hollow bastion almost thrown wide open. Leon had been awoken by a scared Yuffie, she was jabbering that the heartless had somehow come to Hollow Bastion and were going to break through in any second. He remembered quickly standing up, and joining Cloud at the front of the ancient mansion. Cloud had been garbed in his full gear. Cape and buster sword equipped, and his miraculous and scary one demon wing extended upwards. The door had been broken open, and a small horde of heartless had bursted into the room, but quickly slain. The feel of battle & adrenaline once lost had been pounding into his veins. The heartless seemed to be confused, driven by some pointless urge to fight back. As if they didn't truly want to fight...   
  
The battle had ended and the door sealed and barricaded with several spells. Since then there had been no more invasions. But much worry.   
  
"SQUALL!!!" yelled a small jumpy voice suddenly awoke him from trance. He could tell by some 6th sense that it had been Yuffie who yelled. What did she want this time?   
  
"... its Leon... get it right..."   
  
" well, whatever, there's a guy at the entrance of Hollow Bastion!"  
  
"... what?"...  
  
Leon started to run, managing to grab his gunblade on the way, he shouldered it and kept on running. The world barriers were up again. There was no way of traveling worlds. But it didn't matter anyway, if the person was there, they were there. Just how to deal with him was Leon's main concern.   
  
  
  
He had wandered to the points of no return. He had searched and looked and kept on going. Never stopping, never letting anything affect him, he had only one sole goal. To find his friend again. Sora and Kairi had always had something between the two. Even when they couldn't tell it, it was as if fate had always kept them together. And now he was obligated to bring them back together. Sure, he had always loved Kairi just as much, but there was just nothing between them.  
  
  
  
~Anger...~   
  
  
  
But still he loved her, and he knew that Sora loved her too, and so he was obligated to bring them back together. When the girl you love for is in love with your best friend, that's about the only thing you can really do... But it wasn't fair for him... no it wasn't, it was never fair for him. He wandered worlds, searched, and for something that might not even be there anymore...   
  
  
~hatred~...  
  
  
No he musn't think like that. Or else the darkness would consume him. It was fortunate that his powers had lasted even after the defeat of Maleficent. These were some amazing abilities that he had been granted, and perhaps sometimes he took them for granted, but if he didn't have them, he wouldn't be able to continue searching. Might not even be able to live. But that wasn't important, all that's important right now, was to find out if Sora was in this old deserted structure. It looked so sophisticated and old at the same time, he was sure that he had seen it before. Like he had been here at one point.   
  
~I can give you so much power~!!!  
  
His eyes suddenly flashed a quick purple and remembered. Back when the darkness had consumed him, when he had been controlled by another being, he was here...   
  
~Sora ran towards him the keyblade and swung~  
  
Riku's eyes flashed again, memories flooding back to him. He had been here yes, he was here when he was serving maleficent, when he had fought his friend, twice actually. One time he was controlled by the horrid man Ansem. Ironically Ansem had been the one who had built this... "Hollow Bastion" (as Riku could remember). And now maybe here he could find a clue to Sora's whereabouts.   
  
  
  
  
...Yes, everything is born from darkness...it grows within it, and consumes it. But there is always a light. For some reason, something always to hold darkness back. The dark and the light both come from hearts. Always checked and kept in balance, but what happens when the dark completely consumes the light? The person becomes a "heartless". These heartless creatures, all they really want to do is find the light and find their own hearts. All it takes for them is a small bit of light to become a person again. Whether they turned to darkness because of a lost of a loved one, a tragedy, their own greed, whatever it may be, if it could be stopped, the person would come back. But as these heartless wander the worlds to remind themselves of their past days, maybe something would invoke a glimmer of hope and restore light back to their hearts. So thus, because these creatures wander aimlessly for just a small bit of hope, shows us that there is always some hope, some small chance of light to return.   
  
Excerpt from scrawled notes found in Hollow Bastion library...  
  
  
So, how was the prologue people? Comments ideas, gladly accepted. 


	2. The lost wanderer

Chapter 2: A lost wanderer  
  
Atlas-  
  
Hey ' o. guys. Well, here's chapter 2 of the story. Wrote it even though I should be studying for finals. =0 shh! You guys won't tell though right? Heha, hope you like it.   
  
  
  
... why do people hurt? How come the world isn't perfect and happy?... its because there is darkness to cloud the light. However even in the darkest abyss there is always a glimmer, and the glimmer can be the door to a better place. A bit hope, even in the endless fields hurt, pain, and sadness, is all that some need to be saved. Just a small ray of light, of hope can change the future. And that is what the heartless look for.   
  
Excerpt from torn page notes.   
  
  
  
Riku felt a swoosh of wind when the door finally opened. A man dressed in black with bangs, had a gun/sword propped against his shoulder looked down at him. The creases on the mans face showed stress, but an air of serene calmness surrounded him. Riku was almost taken aback by the mans presence.   
  
"I'm searching for someone named Sora, is he here?"   
  
..."Sora... keyblade master?"  
  
"Yes, he wields a keyblade, do you know him?" Riku suddenly felt a jump of hope come from within him. Perhaps these people had a clue of his friends whereabouts? All this wandering had made him extremely weary. If he finally had a clue...   
  
"The last we heard of him, he found a girl he had been looking for and then went off to look for a king of some realm".   
  
The small glimmer of hope stirring in Riku's heart suddenly warped into confusion and a feeling of hopelessness. He had remembered helping Sora close the door. And after that... the king, could that be Mickey? The mouse he had traveled with? Wait, what had happened? He remembered closing the door to Kingdom hearts, the heartless surrounding him, being teleported away... And then...  
  
Searing hot pain suddenly rushed into Riku's temples. Bright flashes of purple blinded his vision. He squeezed his eyes together tightly to try to force the pain out but this time it had hurt too much, his knees were wobbling, his strength quickly being drained. First he fell on one knee, then the other. He brought his hands to his head and tried to suppress the pain.   
  
...Loss....  
  
Then he felt and saw the ground rush up to his face. The pain stopped, his body refused to move, and then there was darkness. Horrible darkness, pools of darkness, rising around in his head, as if consuming him. Then he couldn't feel anything anymore... except for a little feeling that someone had grab his heart, and wrenched it away. A huge emptiness...   
  
  
The sun shined bright that day. The other children had gotten up and were playing tag. They were all so very happy. But... no... not her. Whenever she woke up, she wanted to be waking up next to him, next to Sora... But no such luck, and this is why she never wanted to wake up in the mornings. Because the world would be so perfect if only he was here, and since he never was, there was no world for her at all. It was so unreal, never to see his smile, never to see his cocky grin and lazy cute baby face. Like something had been taken away, and would never be returned. Something you couldn't touch, something from the heart.   
  
But there was something in here that forced her on, day and day through, something that kept her going through all the pain, the notion that perhaps he was still out there. Perhaps both of them were out there, on their way back... Just a little bit of hope, that could keep her through another day. What else could she do? Hope and cry. She wished and prayed every day that the moment could go back to when they still held hands, she would have jumped over, or pulled him back. She really tried not to think these thoughts, because they don't do anything but make things hurt more. Kairi though, felt like she needed to hurt, almost guilty if she didn't. But it wasn't a problem, no, she hurt everyday, regardless, hurt like there was no tomorrow, but the twisted world always made a tomorrow... always did, and each morning, she would not wake up next to him, and feel the emptiness.   
  
Kairi daintily walked outside onto the beach. The warm sun was a bit comforting, and she felt like going for a walk. She went into the seaside shack, and walked up the steps to the bridge that was above the shack. The stairs were starting to creak, she reminded herself vaguely that she might have to replace some of the wooden boards. As she opened the door to the bridge, she felt a cool breeze blow her hair to the left. Kairi slowly crossed the bridge onto the small circular island, she could remember sitting on the tree branch with Sora, and talking to Riku about leaving the island. Little did they know that night, that they would... Anyhow, she jumped up and sat down on the branch staring out into the wide ocean, and wondering where Sora was...   
  
The laughter of the other children could be heard, and she felt a small glimmer of happiness inside her. The first she felt ever since Sora left, that the world could perhaps be a happier place... just perhaps.   
  
  
Cloud's calm exterior was slowly breaking as he looked at the small group of people who were gathered around the boy. There was him, the old airship pilot Cid, The ever so quiet Leon, a perky ninja thief named Yuffie... and Aerith. His love. But right now, there was no time to stare at Aerith, what concerned the group was of this boy who had just showed up and collapsed. Leon had brought him in unconscious, and had alerted everyone in Hollow Bastion to come and help. Aerith had immideatly taken the boys pulse and checked up on him. She said there was nothing wrong, he had passed out, from what she thought was being overworked, too much stress.   
  
What truly disturbed the group was the piece of paper that fell out of the boy's pocket when he had collapsed. It was a page from a book, a book that everyone had thought been destroyed... The library of Hollow Bastion was great, probably the largest of all worlds he had seen, and it was also protected by switches, traps and tricks. The library was created by Ansem, who had brought books back from his world traveling, and he even wrote books of his own. And he wrote one certain book about his studies on the heartless. When the heartless had taken over Hollow Bastion, Ansem, who decided he had worked to hard of the book to just destroy, had scattered the pages across the worlds. Now supposedly, they were only 10 pages... but this boy somehow had another page... Was there more to the small book Ansem had wrote?...   
  
There was a groaning noise and everyone in the rooms attention suddenly snapped back to the boy. He seemed almost possessed, and started groping at the air, and then his eyes opened, he groggily sat up, then as if by instinct, jumped off the bed and magically summoned a sword into his hand.   
  
"ALLRIGHT, WHERE AM I?! WHATS GOING ON?!"  
  
Aerith was the first to respond. "calm down calm down. Your in Hollow Bastion, we found you unconscious outside, and we put you here to rest and to make sure you were ok. We're your friends, we're not here to hurt you or anything, please calm down".   
  
The boys eyes blazed emotion, but they started to calm down, and the blade from his hand mysteriously disappeared in a short flash of light. He went and sat down on the bed and for a few minutes, did not do anything. Another few minutes past and he asked slowly, "who are you people? How come I am here?".   
  
Cloud, seeing that the situation could quickly shift from just curious to dangerous decided to go first.   
  
" I'm Cloud Strife, this is Leon, the perky ninja girl is Yuffie, The old man is Cid, and the beautiful lady is Aerith"... And as if by instinct, Aerith blushed, Cid started going "who you calling old man!?" and Yuffie started to insist she was not perky. But the boy smiled and everyone had an understanding that the situation was now friendly.  
  
"I'm Riku, I'm searching for my friend Sora,..."   
  
Old memories stirred in the eyes of Cloud's companions, and they all either made a nod or had a confused look. Seeing that the people knew his friend, Riku pressed further.   
  
"I'm trying to find him, so I can bring him back home to our world, Destiny Islands. I know of what happened with Ansem, and the heartless, and I had gotten myself involved. In the end I had been with Sora at the End of the World. We had sealed the entrance of Kingdom Hearts, and since then I haven't seen him. But I'm obligated to bring him back to our world. He has a promise to keep, and I'm going to help him keep it"...   
  
Cloud could almost feel the boy's pain. He too had spent an eternity wandering and searching for his love. And in the end they had found each other. He knew the pain of searching, and never finding, of wandering and feeling lost. Oh, he knew the feeling too well, and no one else should have to feel the pain he did. If there was one emotion that hurt the most... it was to be alone, without anyone with you. The feeling could bring down the strongest men, the most courageous of people. For it had brought him down as well... Sort of unsure how to help the boy, he offered the only thing the people of Hollow Bastion really could, their hospitality.   
  
" I also know the pain of searching for someone dear to you. Someone you have lost..." and as if now by instinct, his hand reached over to Aerith's, and their fingers intertwined and clasped tightly. "Your welcome to stay here until you need to keep on searching. We can show you where the things are, and if anytime you need a place to rest, your welcome to come back here". And suddenly he remembered the sheet of paper "oh, but we would like to ask you a few questions if that is ok with you..."   
  
Riku had not had friends in so long. His tough outer self that he had built up so long, almost collapsed before him. He was so thankful for people who could understand him, thankful for friends... Riku was never a person of many words, but he really tried to say something friendly. "That would be great, thank you. And you can ask ahead".   
  
"Well, we're wondering where you found that piece of paper. You see..."- ...........................  
  
  
Kairi had started crying again. She tried not to, really she did... but it didn't help at all... She was sitting on the pier. The one she and Sora had sat on, on that day the heartless came. She had said to him, "lets just run away with this raft, the 2 of us, together"... It was the first time she had enough courage to tell him how much she liked him. He was clueless though, he put on his cute puzzled face and started asking if she was ok or something. That day..., oh that day. If only she had said something more, or maybe if she hadn't said anything at all. Things would be different now...  
  
But he had promised. She gave him her favorite key chain, one she made out of flower petals. She gave it to him as a gift, a little token. But she told him that she wanted him to return it to her later. She made him promise... But what she really wanted wasn't her charm back. She just wanted to make sure that he would come back. She gave it to him as a little hint, to come back to her some day. So that they could be together again. She wondered if he still had the charm... it wasn't important to her, what mattered was that he came back... but what if he still had it? If nothing at all, it would remind him of her. Oh how she wish he were back here on the island with her... Or if only she could run away...  
  
~loneliness~...  
  
She felt so alone... as if there would be no one for her when she needed them. All she really wanted now was for someone to hold her. For Sora to hold her... She remembered how he was the one who had her heart. Riku had been searching for her heart, for her, but all the time it was with Sora...  
  
She wondered... Was the reason why Sora wasn't coming back because... no... she didn't have... did she?... It couldn't be...  
  
  
  
To be continued...  
  
Ok I promise in the next chapter, I'll actually make something happen =D. 


End file.
